Food Starvation

Introduction

 

Food Starvation and famine is an ever-increasing problem throughout the world. Whether individuals are living in developed or developing countries, starvation amongst people is evident. As future leaders, students must be educated on the issue of food starvation and malnutrition and the reasons behind it. By doing so, students can sympathize with others and develop possibly solutions to this unfortunate reality.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, there is roughly 795 million people are chronically undernourished in the world (UNFAO, 2014-2016). Unfortunately, the age group most affected by chronic undernourishment is children. A startling 45% of children deaths in 2011 was due to undernutrition (Black et al. 2013). 

 

Clearly, this is an important issue that students must be aware of. Therefore, with the help of World Food Program this lesson will educate students on the issues and influences in the world that affect food starvation and malnutrition. 

http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/world%20hunger%20facts%202002…

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23746772

Created by Nicole James and Cindy Depins

Task

The education of global issues and social justice is critical. The idea of educating students on Food starvation is critical. 

  • To expose students on relevant and current issues involving world hunger.
  • To educate students on possibly cause and effects of domestic and global hunger.
  • To encourage critical thinking in terms of solutions to food starvation and world hunger.

 

Allowing individuals to formulate their own ideas and perspectives is important when studying sensitive topics. 

Process

Students will begin with general research in various definitions of malnutrition, hunger, undernutrition, famine and starvation. The class must understand the idea that starvation and famine does not simply occur in developing countries. Individuals are going hungry in all areas of the world. Individuals need be aware that there are multiple parties and events that affect food creation, distribution and consumption of food and the variation between countries.

 

Once, students have a proper grasp on key players of food starvation. The class will begin an activity to bring this upsetting information into perspective.

This Lesson has been adapted from the World Food Programme

Materials

  • 1 ball of yarn
  • Up to 10 advocate title and description sheets (included below) printed correspondingly on cardstock, using both sides.

Instructions

  1. Divide the class into 10 groups/pairs and give each group/ pair a card.
  2. Explain to the class that during this activity they will look at the ways in which different issues are related to poverty, hunger, and disease. The card each group was given represents the type of advocate they are for a particular issue. As a representative of the concern on their card it is their job to explain the link between the group’s concern and the rest of the class.
  3. Allow each group time to discuss their cards and brainstorm possible ideas/connections.
  4. To begin the activity, have the groups form a circle.
  5. Start with the Hunger Advocate giving that group the ball of yarn

• Encourage the groups to present as advocates for their positions

• Ex. “I am advocating about the issue of hunger. One of the causes of hunger is poverty. People who are impoverished are unable to buy food, so they experience hunger. More than 963 million people in the world go to bed hungry every night. This is why I must join with the
poverty advocate to work on both alleviating hunger and poverty.

• The hunger advocate would then toss the ball of yarn to the advocate they are connected to (using the example above they yarn would be passed to the extreme poverty advocate).

7. The new advocate, the person with the yarn, should advocate for their position, then passing the yard to another advocate.

• This process should be continued until everyone has gone.
• NOTE: If some advocates are connected more than once, this is okay.

8. Close the activity by discussing the following questions with your class. (students may have other discussion points to add to the list)

 

Advocates

 

HUNGER ADVOCATE

Around the world, ONE person in seven goes to bed hungry
each night. In essence, hunger is the most extreme form of poverty, where individuals or families cannot afford to meet their most basic need for food. Undernourishment negatively affects people’s health, productivity, sense of hope and overall well-being. We need to address hunger not just by giving food, but helping farmers in poor countries grow better crops and helping countries

build farm-to-market roads so farmers can supply distant cities. (Source: Hunger Report 2004, Bread for the World Institute. www.bread.org)

HEALTH & HIV/AIDS ADVOCATE

More than 38 million people around the world are infected by HIV/AIDS, 25 million in Africa alone. The spreading HIV/AIDS epidemic has quickly become a major obstacle in the fight against hunger and poverty in developing countries. Because the majority of those falling sick with AIDS are young adults who normally harvest crops, food production has dropped dramatically in countries with high HIV/AIDS prevalence rates. Left untreated, AIDS leads to an early death for people in their most productive years who are needed to raise crops and families, teach school

and care for the sick. (Source: State of Food Insecurity in the World 2003. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/ j0083e/j0083e00.htm)

CLEAN WATER & SANITATION ADVOCATE

ONE person in seven has no access to clean water for drinking, cooking or washing. In addition to spreading disease, this has multiple negative effects –– girls growing up in villages without water are far less likely to attend school because they’re too busy spending hours walking to and from the nearest water source. Bad health caused by poor sanitation has a knock-on (secondary or incidental) effect on the family economy and nutrition. Building safe water supplies, improving sanitation through well-constructed latrines and teaching communities about safe hygiene practices

are a few ways to improve the health of many around the globe. (Source: WaterAid www.wateraid.org.)

EDUCATION ADVOCATE

Parents in Malawi know just as well as parents in Missouri that education is crucial to their children’s future. But around the world, 104 million children do not go to school, because their parents cannot afford fees, books or uniforms. Providing education for women and girls would have a dramatic impact on the poor in

developing countries. (Source UNICEF: The State of the World’s Children 2004 http://www.unicef.org/sowc04/sowc04_girls_positive_force.html)

ORPHANS & CHILDREN ADVOCATE

Every three seconds a child dies of causes related to extreme poverty, hunger and disease. Around the world, millions of children have already lost one or both parents to AIDS. Unless more is done, there will be 25 million of these children around the world by 2010. Children are more vulnerable to disease, because

their bodies are weakened from hunger. (Source: State of Food Insecurity in the World 2002. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. http://www. fao.org/docrep/005/y7352e/y7352e00.htm.)

FAIR TRADE ADVOCATE

As much as people in poor countries appreciate development assistance, no one wants to rely on a handout –– they want to trade their way out of poverty –– but international rules make it difficult. Farm and trade policies in the United States and
the European Union are creating hardships for family farmers everywhere. Seventy-five percent of poor people in developing countries—some 900 million people—depend on agriculture for their livelihood. A fair trade system would give people in poor countries the chance to earn their way out of poverty by

participating in the world economy. (Source OxFam America www. oxfamamerica.org)

 

ANTI-CORRUPTION ADVOCATE

While corruption is harmful to all governments, losing resources to corrupt leaders is particularly devastating in poor countries where every dollar lost results in one less child in school or one less well dug to provide clean water. Contrary to popular opinion, a large portion of the United States Agency for International Development is channeled through existing private relief and development agencies, like Catholic World Relief, World Vision, CARE, Mercy Corps and many others. Education is essential for understanding the reality of global development. (Source: USAID, www.usaid.gov) g)

 

DEBT CANCELLATION ADVOCATE

Every year Sub-Saharan Africa, the poorest region of the
world, spends $14.5 billion repaying debts to the world’s richest countries and international institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. For example, the civil conflict
in Burundi resulted in an increase in health problems related
to malaria, a decrease in education for children and emotional trauma from years of civil strife. But the money needed to address these concerns is diverted to pay off international debts. Though we’ve made efforts to relieve the unpayable debts of many nations, poor countries still spend more each year on debt than on

health care or education. (Source: AFSC, http://afsc.org/africa-debt/talking- points.htm)

 

EXTREME POVERTY ADVOCATE

Extreme poverty means living on less than $1 a day, unimaginable to us as Americans. In the developing world, more than 1.2
billion people currently live below the international poverty line. Many people are unable to feed their families, because they

cannot make a decent wage to buy or produce food. (Source: Human Development Report 2003, Millennium Development Goals: A compact among nations to end human poverty, United Nations Development Programme. www.undp.org/hdr2003/)

 

WOMEN & GIRLS ADVOCATE

Throughout the world, women work to provide for themselves and their families. They labor hard, but often their work is valued far less than that of men. In many families, women and girls are the last in line not just for food but for medical care as well. Pregnant women, new mothers who breastfeed infants, and children are

among the most at risk of malnourishment. (Source: World Health Organization. http://www.who.int/en/ ) 

Evaluation

Discussion Questions: Based on the number in brackets, represents the amount of information you should provide for each question.

  1. Did your group provide enough information to demonstrate and explain your position in the yarn activity? (5)
  2. Did you contribute to the research for your advocate position? How? (2)
  3. Do you feel everyone contributed equally in your group? (1)
  4. What connections are the most obvious? The least?  (5)
  5. What are some other connections that haven’t already been made? (5)
  6. How does this exercise influence your feelings about the struggle against injustice? (5)
  7. Do you think more can be done if advocacy groups work together? (5)
  8. Did you enjoy this activity? Why/ why not? (2)

Students will be assessed in multiple ways.

 

For: The teacher will be assessing constantly. As the students are researching various terminology prior to the activity the teacher will circulate. The idea of researching terminology is to strength their argument in the yarn activity. Therefore, the students will want to understand their definitions rather than simply writing them down. Depending on how well the students are succeeding at this, the students will either require additional support or time to research. Once the teacher feels everyone is comfortable enough in their information they can work in their groups to understand their roll and the parts they play in food starvation.

 

Of: The yarn activity is the assessment of. Students have research and are critically thinking of important aspects to their roll in food starvation. If students are not comfortable in the information it will show in their part of the activity. Furthermore, the assessment of learning will be demonstrated in the discussion questions that can be used as an Exit Slip for the class. Students will be marked based on their answers to the discussion questions, a total of 30 marks.

 

As: When students are working together on their advocate positions, students can assess their knowledge based on their peers understanding of the topic. The collaborative work will further a students understanding of the topic. Based on a student’s effort, they are able to identify their strengths and weaknesses they would like to develop.

Conclusion

Food Starvation and hunger is a very important issue. This lesson is designed for a middle years stream and can be utilized into High School as well. The concepts and ideas that are covered in this activity is very important. Students can understand the key players in the cause and development of starvation. The incorporation of group work allows for further understanding of their specific area and collaboration amongst peers. Students can critically think when developing their arguments. The utilization of visual and kinesthetic movements keeps students engaged and interested in the activity. Food starvation and hunger can be a difficult and sensitive concept to cover. Therefore, allowing the students to work together eases this harsh information and allows them to feel they have a voice in the matter. Overall, a great lesson to further a students understanding of food starvation.

Credits